Friday, November 20, 2009

[2009.11.21] LEON JAY WILLIAMS CHASES AFTER ETHAN YUAN'S POPULARITY

courtesy of takungpao.com

The Stephen Fung Tak Lun directed inspirational dance romantic comedy JUMP (TIU CHOOK HUI) originally was completed in 2007. Due to male lead Edison Chen Koon Hei's personal incident the film release was delayed. Finally popular Taiwan idol Leon Jay Williams (Lap Wai Lim) replaced Chen Koon Hei in the male lead role and the film has been scheduled for a December 3 Hong Kong release.

A former model, Lap Wai Lim felt that the opportunity was rare. Because he has always wanted to work on a Hong Kong production and liked this script very much, he agreed without any hesitation to perform. He was not afraid of any comparison with Chen Koon Hei. He said, "Others also often compare me with (Ethan) Yuan Tin King." Lap Wai Lim hoped that the audience would enjoy his performance and through it be as widely known among the Hong Kong audience as his buddy Yuan Tin King. He joked that he had to hurry and catch up to Yuan Tin King's popularity in Hong Kong. Because they started around the same time, he of course had to work hard to be even with him.

As for working with director Fung Tak Lun, Lap Wai Lim expressed that the experience was an interesting one. "Because the director himself was an actor, when he directed he would talk from an actor's perspective. I thought this was great, very easy for me to grasp and get into character. In some important scenes, the director would even personally perform once. After that though he still encouraged the actors to freely perform."